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Me

Gigs::::I am "The Curator" and one of two lead pastors at Westwinds Church in Jackson Michigan. I am an author, painter, songwriter, and musician. I have recorded 8 albums to date::::I blog here at johnvoelz.com.

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The Christian should have a CLEAR picture of equality from scripture. The first demonstration of this is seen in Genesis 1:27-28. Both men and women bear the image of God. Look at Genesis 5:1-2. When God created us he gave men and women both the responsibility of ruling over His creation. Now, throughout scripture, men and women are given different roles and we understand there are differences in the way we think and feel, but those things must be separated from essence when looking at equality.

Scripture gives record of many women filling prominent leadership roles including deacon, teacher, prophet, worship leader, and national leader.

You can read about Deborah in the book of Judges. She was a judge over all Israel. She was no wimp. She was bold, courageous, not afraid to go toe to toe, challenging. She was also a songwriter so I have a personal liking for her.

We have an entire book dedicated to Queen Esther who influenced her government and rescued her people. She was a risk-taker

And, contrary to popular belief, the Apostle Paul was very pro women-in-ministry. He preached his first message in Macedonia to an audience of all women (you can read about that in Acts 16). He was intimately acquainted with women leaders in the church and supported their ministries. There is the story Luke writes about where Priscilla, who was a fellow worker of Paul, taught the great Apostle Apollos in her home when he was in Ephesus. Acts 18 says, “She explained to him the way of God more adequately.” She was a deacon in the church of Cenchrea.

Miriam, Moses’ sister was a prophet and a worship leader.

There is the story of Huldah the prophet in II Kings 22 who found the book of the law and went to the men leaders and confronted them on their poor leadership. She instituted a national revival. Now, God could have chosen any prophet he wanted to at that time. He chose a woman at that time.

It doesn’t jive with me that God would raise up all these strong women leaders and then talk out the other side of his mouth.